DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0222
210
RIEVAUX ABBEY.
rifes the lofty (battered fabric of this once magnificent abbey,
filent as in the hufh of ages. Near it a little ruftic hamlet,
the fmoke of whofe chimneys afcends with a peacefulnefs as if
ftill touched by the monaftic fpirit of the place. Around
ftretch wooded valleys and ancient paftoral hills, feeming yet
lovingly to enfhrine this vifion of beauty reaching us from the
days of a once proud hierarchy, that never dreamed of its
temples and ccenobia {landing as warnings of the vanity of
all ambition, even of that which thinks it has laid eternal foun-
dations in the hopes and fears of the human foul. But let us
defcend.
The chief remains are thofe of the tranfept and the choir,
with a portion of the main tower Handing at the junction of
the tranfept, and what once was the nave, but of which only the
foundation can now be traced. What, in fact, is the prefent
tranfept, muft have been the body of the original church. It
bears all the (lamp of that early period. Its fmall, and, for the
moft part, round-headed windows and rude mafonry tell of the
Norman period of the days of Walter Efpec. The tower is
fhort and broad, like moft Norman towers, with its tall narrow
lancet windows ; but the choir has all the air of a later day.
The lofty pillars, its pointed and often deeply-moulded arches,
and all its carvings, are of much more advanced ftyle. The
whole length of the church was three hundred and forty-eight
feet: the nave being one hundred and fixty-fix feet long by
fixty-three wide ; the tranfept one hundred and eighteen feet
long and thirty-three wide. The arch opening from the
tranfept into the choir is feventy-five feet high, and the
circumference of the bafe of each pillar is thirty feet. The
fide aides are divided from the centre by eight cluftered
columns on each fide; above is the triforium arcade, confifting
of fourteen arches on each fide; above which is a paflage along
RIEVAUX ABBEY.
rifes the lofty (battered fabric of this once magnificent abbey,
filent as in the hufh of ages. Near it a little ruftic hamlet,
the fmoke of whofe chimneys afcends with a peacefulnefs as if
ftill touched by the monaftic fpirit of the place. Around
ftretch wooded valleys and ancient paftoral hills, feeming yet
lovingly to enfhrine this vifion of beauty reaching us from the
days of a once proud hierarchy, that never dreamed of its
temples and ccenobia {landing as warnings of the vanity of
all ambition, even of that which thinks it has laid eternal foun-
dations in the hopes and fears of the human foul. But let us
defcend.
The chief remains are thofe of the tranfept and the choir,
with a portion of the main tower Handing at the junction of
the tranfept, and what once was the nave, but of which only the
foundation can now be traced. What, in fact, is the prefent
tranfept, muft have been the body of the original church. It
bears all the (lamp of that early period. Its fmall, and, for the
moft part, round-headed windows and rude mafonry tell of the
Norman period of the days of Walter Efpec. The tower is
fhort and broad, like moft Norman towers, with its tall narrow
lancet windows ; but the choir has all the air of a later day.
The lofty pillars, its pointed and often deeply-moulded arches,
and all its carvings, are of much more advanced ftyle. The
whole length of the church was three hundred and forty-eight
feet: the nave being one hundred and fixty-fix feet long by
fixty-three wide ; the tranfept one hundred and eighteen feet
long and thirty-three wide. The arch opening from the
tranfept into the choir is feventy-five feet high, and the
circumference of the bafe of each pillar is thirty feet. The
fide aides are divided from the centre by eight cluftered
columns on each fide; above is the triforium arcade, confifting
of fourteen arches on each fide; above which is a paflage along